Paintball is a sporting game having two teams of players usually trying to capture one another's flag. The sport is played on a large field with opposing home bases at each end. Each team's flag is located at the player's home base. In addition, all of the players have compressed gas guns, referred to herein as either “compressed gas guns” or “paintball markers”, that shoot projectiles commonly referred to as paintballs. These paintballs are generally spherical gelatin capsules filled with paint. During play of the sport, the players on each team advance towards the opposing team's base in hopes of stealing the opposing team's flag, without being eliminated from the war game. A player is eliminated from the game when the player is hit by a paintball fired from an opposing player's marker. When the paintball hits a player, a “splat” of paint is left on the player.
Compressed gas guns (launching mechanisms) using compressed gas or air for firing projectiles are well known. As used herein, compressed gas gun refers to any gun or similar launching mechanism for use in sport wherein a projectile is fired via the force of compressed gas, and includes paintball markers. As used herein, projectiles refers to both paintballs, and other projectiles used in sport and game play.
Paintball markers have two basic mechanisms working in conjunction for firing a paintball from the marker during a firing operation. One of these mechanisms is for loading a paintball in the breech of a paintball marker, and usually involves a bolt that reciprocates from a loading position, allowing a projectile into the breech, to a firing position. A valving system is employed to release compressed gas from a source of compressed gas to fire the projectile from the marker.
Several types of compressed gas guns are available in the paintball sport field. These fall into two main classes or “actions”: the “open bolt” action and the “closed bolt” action.
In the open bolt action, two chambers (upper and lower) are provided in a gun body. The upper chamber houses the bolt. The lower chamber houses a hammer and a valve, such as a pin type or poppet valve, also referred to as an exhaust or firing valve. The valve that controls the opening and closing of a flow passage between a high pressure chamber, and the upper chamber and bolt. The bolt moves during firing and returns to the loading (open) position after firing, in most cases by “blow back” gas pressure, thus the term “open bolt.” A spring biases the bolt and/or hammer forward. The bolt and hammer are sometimes connected by a mechanical linkage, thus moving together. When the bolt is cocked in the loading position, the hammer is held in place such as by a sear. Releasing the sear by actuation (pulling) of the trigger allows the hammer and bolt to move forward by spring force. The bolt, in the firing position, is in alignment with the flow passage of the valve. In the firing position, the hammer impacts the valve, releasing high pressure compressed gas. The compressed gas flow through the flow passage, through the aperture in the bolt, and fires the chambered projectile.
In the closed bolt action, the bolt and hammer are arranged to move independently, thereby allowing for less “bounce” or “kick” when the gun is fired, since the bolt is not moving when the valve released compressed gas. The “closed bolt” action is referred to as such because the bolt is in the firing position, and paintballs are already chamber, prior to a mechanism such as a hammer opening the valve. In a closed bolt action paintball marker, a projectile is already chambered, and when the trigger is pulled, the hammer is released, striking the valve and sending gas through the bolt, thus firing a paintball.
A cross sectional side view of an illustrative prior art closed bolt mechanically cocking, or “automatically cocking,” compressed gas gun 200 is shown in FIG. 19. A close bolt compressed gas gun 200 of the “automatically cocking” closed bolt action has a gun body 202, having an upper chamber or breech 204, and a lower chamber 206. The lower chamber 206 houses firing components, including a cocking rod 208 which projects rearwardly from the gun body, and has a hammer 210 at its forward end. The hammer 210 is biased forward by a cocking spring 212 in the rear of the lower chamber 206.
A firing valve 214 is provided in the lower chamber having a stem 216 facing the hammer 210, and a valve seat 218 on the opposite side of the firing valve 214. The firing valve 214 is normally of a spring-biased poppet valve, as is known in the art. A high pressure chamber 240 receives compressed gas under pressure from a compressed gas source (not shown) adjacent the seat 218. Generally, in the sport of paintball for example, the source of high pressure compressed gas is a compressed gas tank, as is well known in the art.
As shown in FIG. 19, the upper chamber 204 houses a bolt 220 having an aperture 222 therethrough. The bolt 220 is attached to a back block 224. Projectiles 226, such as paintballs, are received in the upper chamber 204 via an infeed opening 227.
A ram 228 is provided as a means for reciprocating the back block 224. The ram 228 performs as a pneumatically operated piston, and is connected to the back block 224 via a linking rod 230. A valve 232, generally of the “three-way” variety, positioned at a forward portion of the gun 200, is used to control the supply compressed gas to move the ram 228. In mechanically operating guns, a trigger 234 housed in a trigger frame 248 is mechanically linked to the valve 232. Actuating (pulling) the trigger 234 mechanically operates the three-way valve 232, allowing compressed gas to move the ram 228 which in turn moves the linking rod 230 and back block 224 rearward, placing the bolt in a loading position.
The cocking rod 208 is additionally moved rearward by the movement of the back block 224, which catches the rear end of the cocking rod 208 during the back block's rearward movement. By movement of the cocking rod 208, the hammer 210 is placed in a “cocked” position, with sear 236 holding hammer 210 in a cocked position. When the trigger is pulled and the sear 236 is released, it operates the three-way valve, which allows compressed gas to contact the rearward portion of the ram. The back block 224 moves forward, biasing the bolt 220 to a firing position. Pulling (actuating) the trigger moves the sear 236 away from the hammer 210, the hammer 210 is now released for forward motion, the spring 212 biases the hammer 210 forward to hit the valve stem 216. Upon contact by the hammer 210, the firing valve 214 opens to send compressed gas through the bolt 220, and the projectile 226 is fired. The bolt 220 will remain in the firing position (closed bolt) until the next firing operation is initiated by the trigger. A compressed gas gun 10 of the closed bolt “automatically cocking” closed bolt action type is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,822. While a mechanically operated paintball marker of the “automatically cocking” closed bolt type is shown, electronic closed bolt markers are available that operate with electronically operated trigger or valving systems.
As can be discerned from the above description, the mechanical back block, cocking rod and sear arrangement is not efficient, nor is the ram/three-way valve arrangement.
The consistency which compressed gas is released to fire a projectile greatly impacts the accuracy of a paintball marker. It would be advantageous to have a compressed gas gun where a novel valve mechanism is provided in place of the known assemblies discussed above.